Linda M. Monje

Latest Publications

A California court of appeal affirmed a ruling voiding the terms of a trust after finding that there was ample evidence to support that the decedent's wife used undue influence over him to change the trust. The court held in...more

A motion to strike under California’s anti-SLAPP statute was filed in response to a lawsuit initiated by beneficiaries against a trustee and executor of an estate. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit...more

The California Supreme Court recently ruled in Donkin v. Donkin (December 26, 2013), that a challenge to the terms of a trust, in which beneficiaries were seeking interpretation and claiming fiduciary misconduct by trustees,...more

A California court of appeal recently ruled that an agreement to arbitrate disputes between an elderly patient and a nursing facility was not enforceable. The arbitration agreement was signed by the daughter of the patient...more

A California Court of Appeal ruled recently that a trustee of a property, where an injury occurred, cannot be found liable for the injury in the absence of a showing that the trustee was personally at fault for causing the...more

In Farmers New World Life Insurance Company v. Rees (--- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, Cal.App. 2 Dist., August 30, 2013), a California court of appeal considered whether a life insurance company that delayed paying benefits to the...more

Citing case law precedent, the court explained the process of determining whether a disqualifying conflict of interest exists. Where, as here, the potential conflict is one that arises from the successive representation of...more

In In Re J. Howard Marshall (--- F.3d ----, C.A.9 (Cal.), June 28, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals considered the validity of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy had been challenged because it was...more

The California Supreme Court recently addressed the issue of whether a trustee may void a nonjudicial foreclosure sale of real property because the trustee discovered prior to the delivery of the deed to the highest bidder...more

After protracted litigation in a probate matter was resolved in his favor, the trustee of an estate sued a trust beneficiary and his law firm for malicious prosecution. The defendants made a special motion to strike under the...more

A court of appeal recently addressed whether a will was properly admitted to probate. The will contained a regular and complete attestation but only the genuineness of the signature of the decedent and one of the two...more

In Hillman v. Maretta (--- S.Ct. ----, U.S.Va., June 3, 2013), the United States Supreme Court considered whether a state law that provides death benefits from an insurance policy be paid to a current spouse, even if a prior...more

In Estate of Lira (--- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, Cal.App. 2 Dist., December 26, 2012), a California court of appeal considered whether statute allows an attorney who was related by marriage at the time of the drafting of a will, but...more

In Allen v. Stoddard (--- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, Cal.App. 4 Dist., January 9, 2013), a California Court of Appeal considered how to resolve a conflict between two statutes that provide for different time periods during which a...more

In Estate of Giraldin (--- P.3d ----, Cal., December 20, 2012), the California Supreme Court considered whether beneficiaries of a trust, following the settlor’s death, had standing to sue the trustee for breach of fiduciary...more

In Estate of Wilson ( --- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, Cal.App. 1 Dist., December 13, 2012), a California court of appeal considered whether the marriage of a same-sex couple, during the period when same-sex marriages were allowed in...more

In Weingarten Realty Investors v. Chiang (Cal. App. 4th, December 19, 2012), a California court of appeal considered whether a judgment creditor could claim property being held by the State Controller’s office on behalf of...more